January 29, 2006

AUSTIN BAY looks at some modest signs of political progress in Kuwait. Meanwhile, Kevin Drum wonders if Kuwait is running out of oil. IAs I understand it, some of this reflects inflated estimates from past years (I had an item on similar questions about Saudi reserves, and I’ve seen speculation that Iran has less than it lets on), but of course it’s in the interest of these countries to inflate their reserves, thus discouraging additional drilling and competition that might lower prices.

Perhaps this is an argument for not drilling in ANWR and elsewhere in the United States yet — leave that stuff in the ground for a few decades while consuming Middle East oil now, and eventually we’ll be selling oil to them. Or not . . .